"Why can't a woman - be more like a man?"

Tricky one, this!  Apart from anything else, I daren't let the little 'Memsahib' catch a glimpse!

In considering the differences between men and women it is necessary, I think, to agree that we share most human characteristics and that the obvious differences between us stem mostly from the weighting of them within ourselves.  It is usually accepted that women are more caring than men, an idea of such stupidity that it was almost certainly thought up by a man!  If men would pause and think, they would realise that whilst women are happy to be soft and sentimental in their approach to the outside world, any direct threat to themselves or their offspring produces an immediate change into a policy of hard-hearted, and hard-headed, self-interest.  (As I am still in semi-Shakespearean mode, I offer up Cressida from Troilus and Cressida as my perfect example.)

As a result of female emancipation, our nation is now heavily 'feminised', by which I mean that the old male assumptions and paradigms have crumbled and a new synthesis has been created which is brilliantly summed up by that great Californian thinker, Mr. Arnold Schwartzenegger, in his term - "Girly Men"!  I am bitterly opposed to this change, not only because I am whatever the opposite to a 'Girly Man' is, but also because the soft, one might call it 'soppy', feminine approach to the general, as opposed to their ruthless defence of the particular and the personal, is at the heart of much that is wrong with our nation.  The deleterious results can be seen in our schools, our prisons and on the many sink estates that surround our cities.  Even our foreign policy is infected and instead of basing our actions on national self-interest, we go dashing off to war in the impossible hope of righting other people's wrongs.  It is a mark of this strange 'Girly Man-politik' that the old 'blood and thunder' Tories who were always characterised by the Left as 'warmongers' have now withdrawn into a much derided isolationism and it is the 'patriotic rascals' of the neo-Kammite/Eustonite radical Left who now wrap themselves in the flag.  Alas, given their 'Girly Man' ideology they fail miserably to provide our armed services with enough money to do the job preferring to spend it on outreach counsellors and the like!  They also can't bear the thought that sending troops into conquer another country demands a ruthless, cruel imposition of martial law in order to hold it and to offer the population some security, and as they shrink from the task, so they prove our enemy's thesis, that we are soft and useless and ripe for the taking.   Unfortunately, I think they're right!

Comments

[N.I.B.]

"I am whatever the opposite to a 'Girly Man' is"

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

[David Duff]

Well done, 'NIB', I actually laughed at that one!

[barry bananas]

"Even our foreign policy is infected and instead of basing our actions on national self-interest, we go dashing off to war in the impossible hope of righting other people's wrongs."

No, you great soft-headed fag. This war has been fought for the exact same reasons as the rest of them: territory and resources. The only difference is in the marketing: it was packaged as a humanitarian effort in order to sell it to the people (at least retrospectively, once the WMD bullshit lost its usefulness). That you bought that lie suggests that you maybe aren't quite the Manly Mannish Man Man you think you are.

Anyway, what I meant to say is that this post is very stupid and you are a big fairy. Also: show us your bollocks.

[David Duff]

"This war has been fought for the exact same reasons as the rest of them: territory and resources."

Well, if it was fought for territory why haven't we been more ruthless in our occupation and, indeed, why are we so eager to get out?

If it was fought for "resources", by which I assume you to mean oil, why didn't we just allow sanctions to be lifted and we could have bought as much of the stuff as we liked at an even cheaper price because the price of oil would have dropped with a new influx from Iraq?

Now try and answer the questions, Barry, otherwise I'll tell your Mum you've been wasting time on that computer again!

[Planeshift]

"Well, if it was fought for territory why haven't we been more ruthless in our occupation and, indeed, why are we so eager to get out?"

A combination of political incompetence and structural limitations on the power of representative democracies to be as ruthless as authoritarian givernments.

"why didn't we just allow sanctions to be lifted and we could have bought as much of the stuff as we liked at an even cheaper price because the price of oil would have dropped with a new influx from Iraq?"

A combination of incompetence, lack of political imagination and questionable sanity from the leadership of US/uk governments.

[David Duff]

Well done, 'PS', you're spot on with the first, in my opinion. However, I suspect you might not follow me on to the conclusion of that observation and join me in urging for a 'Trash and Dash' policy in the future, by which I mean, we send in troops (or just missiles) to kill the government, leaving a note on the wrecked presidential desk that if there is any more trouble we'll be back!

As for the second, a little harsh coming from you who, I suspect, is in favour of supporting UN resolutions of which the sanctions were a part. You can't have it both ways, 'PS'!

[N.I.B.]

David - would you mind awfully if I added that last paragraph of yours to the 'examples' section in this Wikipedia article?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

[Larry Teabag]

I am whatever the opposite to a 'Girly Man'is

A Ladyboy, I think.

[David Duff]

Sorry, 'NIB', I don't mind but I don't think they would accept it because of those two little words I carefully inserted - "I suspect" and which you carelessly failed to read.

Larry, sorry to you, too, because your 'joke' isn't a patch on 'NIB's', and let's face it, coming second to 'NIB' in anything is pretty galling!

[N.I.B.]

Ah yes, 'I suspect' - I'll pop it in the 'weasel words' entry as well.

[barry bananas]

Oh, now don't play dumb, Duff.

1. Nobody is leaving Iraq. Our UK's partners in crime are currently building a string of permanent military bases at strategic points all across Iraq, not to mention the largest US Embassy in the world, ever. Iraq is a vital foothold in the Middle East for western military and political interests. Its proximity to other nations of concern to the Coalition of the Willing doesn't need to be pointed out.

2. Because the idea was not to get at the Iraqi's oil. The idea was to make sure it stays in the ground.

Now, where are those knackers at? Get yer sack out and dance for us, ya big mary.